Tag Archives | Tattered Angels

Scrapbooking companies have been falling like dominoes lately, as four well-known companies have shut down, filed for bankruptcy (or both) since early December.

GCD Studios

California-based GCD Studios filed for Chapter 7 (liquidation) bankruptcy in early December, listing assets of less than $2,000 and debts of over $2 million. The company ceased operations in late 2013, listing no profits for 2013 and a little over $300k for 2012. The vast majority of GCD’s debt is to investors, including owner/president Michael Rountree.

In it’s heyday, GCD boasted ground-breaking lines from industry luminaries like Melody Ross, Heidi Sonboul, Kathy Davis, and Donna Salazar, and was one of the first companies to try to bring the concept of mixed media to the masses in the scrapbook segment through lines like Ross’s Chip Art. Sonboul has now launched her own company at the CHA show in January, and Salazar continues to build her licensed line through other companies. Ross appears to be focusing on her retreat business for the moment. Continue Reading →

Canvas Corp announced this week that it has acquired Fort Collins, Colorado-based Tattered Angels, which is best known for its Glimmer Mist line of spray ink products.

This is the company’s second acquisition in less than two months – Canvas Corp purchased 7 Gypsies in December 2011 from Ultra-Pro. They also purchased BagWorks, a fabric cut and sew company, in the summer of 2011. BagWorks offers canvas and burlap products that are produced in a facility in Springdale, Arkansas, where Canvas Corp is headquartered. That acquisition, Canvas Corp says, “allows us to offer a wider range of blank items.”

Tattered Angels was founded in 2006 by Wendy Senger, who developed the company’s signature “Glimmer Mist” in her kitchen. “Glimmer Mist” is a water-based dye ink in a spray dispenser that has been widely copied by other companies in the papercrafting market. Although the product was initially a huge success, the huge rise in competition for Glimmer Mist dampened the company’s fortunes the past few years as the company has not been able to duplicate the success of Glimmer Mist’s debut. Continue Reading →

Not only is this new product something unique, but they are acid free and a lot of fun to play with, too. Pink Paislee has come out with a new product called Artisan Elements, and in its debut they released three different items: sets of swirls, frames, and an alphabet.

I don’t know what the material actually is. Somehow it’s not only soft and flexible, but also acid free. So many scrapbook embellishments these days do not state they are acid free, so to see Pink Paislee come out with something so unique that is archivally safe (and fairly flat) makes this scrapbooker super happy.

The possibilities, it would seem, are bound only by the imagination. I’ve tried inking, stamping, misting, painting, glittering, gluing, using marker pens, gold leafing pen, and even debossing the material with the GCD ChipArt tool I reviewed a few weeks ago. Everything I have tried to make stick to this material works.

Above is a piece I experimented on heavily. Some mediums take a while to dry, but everything I’ve tried does indeed dry and stick to the surface.

In the example above I used Smooch inks (that have a liquid eyeliner type consistency and applicator) to paint the design. It took a few minutes, but it was fun to do – I felt like a kid with a coloring book.

While coloring in detail was fun, I find myself leaning towards just picking one color to decorate the pieces. Below I’ve usedTattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Timeless Lilac to color the flourish. Rather than spritzing, I dipped a small paintbrush into the Glimmer Mist and let the mist soak into the cracks of the design creating deeper color in the lines, and a lighter color along the raised portion. This is both quick and simple.

While acrylic paints do work, I found that thinning them out into more of a glaze-like consistency helped me keep the intricate detail showing up better on the more detailed pieces.

Spraying or spritzing the pieces to give a more uneven look is a lot of fun too, as seen below with a frame.

The material is very soft and easy to cut if desired. Below you can see pieces from the alphabet set. The Q is spritzed, while the question mark has been drawn on with a metallic marker.

I have only two complaints about this product. First, I wish the alphabet had more than one of each letter. Second, I wish there were a lot more designs to choose from. I’d love to see more fonts, styles, and individual elements such as buttons, flowers, leaves, butterflies, and other shapes that would be both useful and fun to use. It is my hope that we’re going to see a lot more of this special material in the future from Pink Paislee.

On this page, I used pieces from each of the sheets of Artisan Elements. The brackets shown above were spritzed with Strawberry Shortcake Chalkboard Mist, then lightly glazed with Mermaid Glimmer Glam by Tattered Angels.

I cut this frame in half to make more of a bracket to hold the date for my layout.

Finally, I used a paintbrush and paints taken to a glaze-like consistency to quickly decorate this large corner accent.

I feel like I’m just scratching the surface with this new material, and knowing that it’s flexible I am currently pondering the possibilities for altered arts and other off-the-page crafting.

6. Fabric/Canvas

Maybe it is a reflection of the homemade/vintage feeling that is sweeping scrapbooking, but a lot of CHA Winter products were created from textiles. Replacing the hard metal embellishments of a few years ago, fabric is both more versatile as a material and more affordable. There’s also less government regulation to worry about for manufacturers, such as issues created recently by the CPSIA.

Some fabric items, such as Donna Downey’s products for Prima, are a blank starting point for projects. Others, such as Studio Calico’s Fabrips borders, are full-featured embellishments designed to be incorporated into other projects.

7. Embossed Cardstock

Products that were either already embossed or for creating embossing are becoming quite common in the scrapbook market. All of the manual die cutting systems seem to offer embossing accessories, and Tim Holtz caused big buzz at CHA with his new Alterations embossing designs for the Sizzix machine. Many of the cardstock companies (like Bazzill and Core’dinations) seem to be entering a gray area between cardstock and patterned paper providers by branching into embossed designs. It’s also becoming more frequent for patterned paper companies to include embossed designs in their lines (K and Company has a long history of this, for instance).

8. Spray Ink/Mist

Ink of all kinds is a hot product right now. But spray ink, which has only recently gotten attention as a category, is the hottest of all the inks – attracting attention even from papercrafters who don’t own a single stamp. Tattered Angels offered up a big expansion of its Glimmer line at CHA Winter 2010 and many other companies also either offered the product for the first time or expanded existing offerings.

9. Fancy Buttons

Buttons are back as part of the vintage trend, but with a twist from their classic scrapbooking incarnation. Instead of plain buttons we now have glitter buttons, textured buttons, and bling buttons. Gone are the days of companies selling color assortments of plain buttons to coordinate with their lines – now they must have extra detail of some kind. Offerings from companies like GCD Studios and Bazzill remind me so much of my grandmother’s button jar!

10: Die Cutting

At CHA Winter 2010, there was plenty of proof that lots of companies see both digital and manual die cutting as a viable market. Several new exhibitors were associated with die cutting, and some of the show’s biggest buzz was centered around the Cricut Cake machine. Besides the Cricut Cake, Sizzix and Craftwell also showed new electronic cutters, greatly expanding the options in that area for consumers. On the manual side, Cottage Cutz was exhibiting as an independent producer of dies, an indicator of the perceived strength in that market. Tim Holtz’s new collection of vintage style dies for Sizzix has potential to reach a new audience for their machine, which is known for a more graphic or cute style of design.

This is my final post on show picks and favorites, and you will find everything from mists to stamps to punches here. The items in this post are things that didn’t fall under papers, stickers, trinkets, or trims, and so I’m gathering them here. The ideas are endless; the possibilities limited only by imagination. There are a lot of items I really want to take a closer look at.

There are a number of notable releases that you will not find in this article such as Tim Holtz’s new Sizzix dies and machine; Tsukineko’s release of metallic staz-on inks; the Cricut Cake; Fiskars’ new line of scissors; new EK Success punches; and so much more. Some items I don’t have images for, while others I felt would need a closer look (that I didn’t have opportunity to take at show) before giving my seal of approval. I see product reviews in my future here at Scrapbook Update, so you should be hearing more from me on products mentioned here and many others.

For now, let me show you my last batch of show favorites:

Sometimes it’s the little things that get me excited. This slow-dry medium from Ranger and Claudine Hellmuth will let me play with my acrylic paints even longer than before. That’s awesome news.

Melody Ross and GCD are hitting it out of the park with unique stuff. I heard these stamps described as similar to leather tools you used at summer camp to put your name on a belt. They are something you can use on leather, chipboard, and lots of other materials.

Here is a shot of more of the fonts available. I really can’t tell you which is my favorite because I want them all. They look like so much fun.

Ranger had a lot of amazing products worth mentioning, including this new black and white enamel accent set that took my breath away. Opaque, glossy, and dimensional, this is a product I’ve wished existed for a long time. Now I can add detail and accent to my projects without pulling out paint.

On first glance these artisan elements by Pink Paislee look like they are hard ceramic, but in reality they’re a bendable, flexible polymer that can be inked, spritzed, painted, and customized however you desire. I’m really looking forward to experimenting with them and seeing what I can do, and how I will be able to make them work for whatever color palette I’m working with.

Distress Ink is nothing new, but Tim Holtz has added twelve new colors and that is something to celebrate. They are wonderful colors and I look forward to writing about them in detail here at Scrapbook Update. (Stay tuned!)

Acrylic stamps continue to pop up in so many lines and I continue to love them. This set from the Dear Lizzy line at American Crafts will work well for any number of layouts and paper craft projects.

I’m not sure where to even start with Tattered Angels. They added in new colors to their classic glimmer mists and have products designed by Heidi Swapp that are noteworthy. They also added new products such as the chalkboard mists shown below. Their new releases were all outstanding and I’ve chosen three to highlight here. The chalkboard mists are hard to describe because they produce a creamy chalk like finish but they still have the sparkle and shine you’d expect from Tattered Angels. They are really something cool.

I’m excited about the glimmer glaze from Tattered Angels as well. I love that I can get a more controlled application than the glimmer mists but with the same beautiful sparkle and shine you’d expect.

The glimmer glam from Tattered Angels also has a really nice daubber in it and the glitter and sparkle is off the hook. Private Meadow was a favorite color, but honestly, I want a lot of these!

I have to fit this stamp from Pink Paislee in here too. I just love that they’ve come out with such lovely little stamps that go with their collections but also can be used with anything you like.

Tonic Studios has a new punch that is unique. At first glance I thought “oh, cute butterfly punch” but it’s not JUST a punch…

As you can see, the butterfly does not punch all the way out as a normal punch does, but you could cut it out if desired. I just love the butterfly being a part of the paper and it’s intricate wings lifting up with a contrasting color or pattern underneath.

This concludes my picks for Winter CHA 2010, but do stay tuned for trend articles, reviews, and much more. Now that I’m home from CHA my head is full of ideas and things to share with you. If you have any questions, comments, or want to share anything with me please feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at may@scrapbookupdate.com

Perhaps it’s a bit self indulgent, but I really feel like I need to devote a whole picks post to ribbons and trim. From twill to lace, printed designs to pleated – and everywhere in between – ribbons and trims were everywhere on the show floor. Here are my picks from CHA-winter:

Everyone was talking about Pink Paislee’s pleated ribbon. I am definitely seeing great possibilities with this unique ribbon product, but I’m even more excited about the Artisan tapes. The patterns are great and I love the feel of them.

Making Memories released a travel line, and I especially love the airplane trim.

Tissue tape. That’s right, Tim Holtz has come up with a tape that’s super sturdy but is made from tissue so it’s partially translucent too. Each roll has 16 yards and there are several different styles. Imagine the inking, layering, painting, and other possibilities!

Webster’s Pages booth was filled with noteworthy trims, beautiful papers, and trinkets. I loved every item in the booth. They’ve really outdone themselves with this release and I’m going to share two examples – their trim card and new fabric ribbon. They also have amazing bulk trims for stores to purchase.

The fabric ribbon from Webster’s Pages is very lightweight and thin but sturdy. I love how intricate the designs are on it.

JIllibean Soup has the cutest little packages of trim. I love all of the colors and designs and how well they will match up to their collections.

My Minds Eye released a collection called Lush and the jewels, brads, and of course ribbons are great accessories not just for this line but others as well. The single color ribbon cards will be very useful.

American Crafts released so many must-haves, and as usual they really hit the mark with their ribbons from all of the lines. The ribbons below coordinate with the “I Do” line. The “Botanique” and “Dear Lizzy” lines have exquisite offerings as well.

Wouldn’t it be fun if somebody took crepe paper and added printed designs? Tattered Angels and Heidi Swapp did just that in their latest offering with these mist-able crepe paper ribbons.

Maya Road released a number of vintage inspired lovely delicate trims. In soft colors and sweet designs, these little treats will be brightening my studio soon I hope.

Queen & Co. released a number of new designs in their signature felt adhesive backed trims that I liked, but these were my favorites. The loops are just too cute!